The influence of domestic bereavements on Rembrandt’s art is clearly reflected in the choice of his subjects, in their more intimate setting, and in the deep feeling which evidently inspired them. No better example of this side of his character and his art could be found than the _Holy Family in the Carpenter’s Shop_ (No. 2542), which he painted in 1640. In that year his mother died, an event which followed rapidly on the death of his two infant daughters and his son, and his wife’s frequent illness. He, however, still went on painting such varied compositions as the _Portrait of a Man_ (No. 2546), of 1645, and the _Woman Bathing_ (No. 2550), which he achieved two years later. [Illustration: PLATE XXIX.—REMBRANDT (1606-1669) DUTCH SCHOOL No. 2539.—THE PILGRIMS AT EMMAUS (Les Pèlerins d’Emmaüs) In a lofty room in front of a shallow niche in a wall, Christ and the two disciples sit at table; a young serving-man enters from the right, carrying a dish. Christ, whose bare feet are seen underneath the table, gazes heavenward as He breaks bread, by which act the disciples recognise Him as their Lord. The room is lit from the left. Painted in oil on panel. Signed below on the left:—“_Rembrandt f. 1648._” 2 ft. 2¾ in. × 2 ft. 1¾ in. (0·68 × 0·65.)] The famous _Night-Watch_, in the Amsterdam Gallery, testifies to his inventive faculty in 1642, the year in which the death of his beloved Saskia caused him intense grief. From this he never really recovered, as we see from the frequency with which during the remainder of his life he painted pathetic subjects. What artist in the whole history of painting has been able to impart to his rendering of the _Good Samaritan_ the kindly solicitude of the principal character in this parable, and the feeling of complete collapse seen in the body of the wounded man, as Rembrandt has done in his superb canvas (No. 2537) of 1648 in this gallery? No less poignant is the grief depicted on the face of the barefooted Man of Sorrows in the _Christ and the Pilgrims at Emmaus_ (No. 2539, Plate XXIX.) of the same year. Here we see convincing proof of the dexterous use that the Dutch “magician-painter” could make of chiaroscuro, which he has handled with such masterly effect in the _Portrait of Hendrickje Stoffels_ (No. 2547, Plate XXX.). All these paintings belong to the same period as the soul-moving _Polish Rider_, which in 1910 passed from the collection of Count Tarnowski at Dzikow in Galicia into that of Mr. H. C. Frick in New York for £60,000. The _Portrait of a Man holding a Bâton_ (No. 2551), in the La Caze collection in this gallery, was painted three years later than the _Bathsheba_, or _Woman Bathing_ (No. 2549), of 1654. The wonderfully realistic and in no way repellent _Carcase of an Ox_ in this gallery (No. 2548), like the picture of the same subject at